


On the Run

by agoodwoman



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-06-03 19:51:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 7,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6623929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agoodwoman/pseuds/agoodwoman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a series of drabbles, set in 2002/2003 after Mulder and Scully went on the run</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Does He Know About the Baby?

Scully leaned on the sink in a random gas station bathroom outside Portland with a shaking hand wiping across the her mouth. The contents of her stomach moved around the water of the bowl of the toilet before it disappeared along with the Gravol she took to fight her nausea. 

They had been on the run for five months and apparently the lack of stability had caused her to come down with a flu. She was exhausted and nauseated. She was sore all over and she just wanted a proper bed. Her body couldn’t handle the stress any longer nor could she function another day on the road with this flu. 

A middle-aged-woman came into the bathroom and checked the first stall before Scully had just expelled into before moving onto the next. Scully felt another wave of nausea and she rushed into the stall to vomit again. 

As she was washing her face the woman approached behind her. “You okay, honey?”

The woman smelled like peppermint and vanilla. It was an oddly soothing scent to her olfactory system. Scully liked her kind blue eyes and weathered skin. 

“I’m…” she stopped herself from saying fine. “I think we’ve just been travelling too long.”

Immediately she regretted mentioning they were travelling.

The woman wet a paper towel and hesitated to press it against her head. “I was a nurse.”

Scully nodded and she closed her eyes as the cool paper touched her forehead under the brim of her ball cap. 

“My name is Nancy,” the woman introduced as she pushed the ball cap up further and took it off Scully’s head. 

The brown dye was still odd to see on her own reflection and she caught herself taken aback. “Thank you.”

She replaced Nancy’s hand with her own and a soothing hand rubbed up her back. 

“Does he know about the baby?” 

Scully looked over at Nancy and her eyes were wide. That wasn’t possible again. She couldn’t be. 

“I’m sorry hun but you don’t look sick,” Nancy clucked. 

This couldn’t very well be happening now. Of course, they had been intimate. Mulder wasn’t a man of infrequent urges but they weren’t expecting a repeat of William. Not now. Not after her last doctor announced she wasn’t ovulating again after William was born.

“I don’t think that’s possible for me,” she sighed regretfully. “I… I can’t.”

“You never know, here,” Nancy said in almost a sing-song voice. “This area is known for its fertile fields on land and in the ladies. Something about our water.”

Nancy shook her head with a rueful smile. “I work for Doctor Phillips down the highway. Come see him at the end of business day and he can do an exam.”

In a gesture of female solidarity, Nancy gave Scully a business card and wrote a private number on the back. 

When Scully was alone she stared at the cool blue eyes in the mirror. The pink cheeks of a woman who lost everything when she was looking for answers and the false brown hair that lied about who she was. 

Instinctively her hand went to her belly. No, she thought. Not again. 

“I don’t know what to do,” she sighed. “All I wanted was the truth.”

Mulder knocked on the door. “Are you ready?”

She opened the heavy metal door and smiled bravely at him. She forced herself not to start a sentence with his name as her usual precursor to asking a favour.

“I’m feeling pretty tired. Can we stay a few days?” she asked.

He looped one arm around her waist and studied her face. “Anything you want, Honey-bunch.”

“Thanks Poopy-head,” she retorted.


	2. You Know it's Okay to Cry

She stood with the business card tucked in her hand and Mulder’s arms across her shoulder. Nancy, the woman in the bathroom, left her feeling nervous and worried. 

A barren woman who had one child certainly couldn’t get pregnant again. The odds were too unlikely. And yet after all they had seen in the last nine years, she didn’t know why she even doubted it.

William would be two soon and if she hadn’t been forced to give him up, she would be thinking of the timing of siblings. She would be considering potty training and early learning for him so he could be socialized with other toddlers his age. 

Scully pushed the thought down along with the sickening idea this baby would be at risk too. 

What else did she need to give up in her life? What other sacrifices did she need to make? Who was it for?

“There’s a motel just up the street,” Mulder told her. “It doesn’t look like a complete dive.

“I want to stop in to a pharmacy before we check in,” Scully requested as they got in their vehicle. Mulder looked at her questioningly and she shook her head. “I’m fine, I just want to get some things in case this is a flu.”

He kindly didn’t argue when she asked him to wait in the car and knew not to snoop when she returned with a flimsy plastic bag. It hid two boxes of pregnancy test kits, among the juice, ginger ale, saltine crackers and Pepto-Bismol. 

“If I’m not feeling better in the morning I think there’s a doctor’s office up the highway,” she suggested as they pulled into the motel parking lot. 

“I’ll go check us in,” he offered and she stood by the car as she tried to eat a few saltines. The dry crackers helped her stomach. A few sips of ginger ale were enough to quell her stomach but the thought of a baby inside her danced around her mind again. 

Mulder let her use the bathroom first as he unpacked an overnight bag from the car. Their usual routine didn’t allow for too much to stay in a motel in case they had to leave anything behind. It was a terrible habit to get into but it happened once or twice a month ago.

She used one box of tests and told herself to wait until morning to take the others, knowing her hormone levels were ideal in the am. Scully turned the water on too hot and put the kits inside her toiletries bag to await her shower. They could wait for her to scrub off the day.

Mulder came in as she was stripping down from her jeans and t-shirt. 

“Company?” he offered.

She nodded and watched as he undressed as well. His body was leaner than when they first began their romantic journey but he hadn’t lost much for muscle mass. He was tanned and beautiful, even with a bit of a longer hairstyle and stubble on his cheeks. They weren’t Mulder and Scully with the FBI. They were fugitives on the run with names that belonged to other people.

“You’re so tiny compared to me,” Mulder said as he hugged her in the shower. His semi hard member was trying to wake up between them and she could feel him twitching against her belly. 

Her breasts ached and her body felt the swell to have him. He turned the temperature down and darted his head under the spray to wet his hair. 

“I might be pregnant,” she blurted out.

Worried eyes caught hers and they stood in the shower in silence. 

“I thought…” he started.

“I have to get tested tomorrow at a doctor’s office but…” Scully shrugged. “I did the math. I’m two weeks late but I thought it was the recent weight loss and stress from the road.”

Mulder didn’t release her from his embrace. He held her in the shower with steam filling up around them and the weighted silence of her declaration hanging between them.

“What if you are?” he asked finally.

She looked up into his eyes as she fought back the tears that needed to fall for another child she couldn’t keep. 

“I don’t know,” she sighed.

Mulder wiped away a tear from his own eye. She knew he hated the injustice of her losses more than she did. He was tired of so much being taken from both of them.

“You know, it’s okay to cry,” she told him and his chin wavered. “I won’t hold it against you.”

He had said those words to her before. What an ironic moment of history repeating itself in such a tacky fashion.

She smiled sadly. “Maybe I’m just sick.”

Mulder shook his head. “I don’t know what situation I want more.”


	3. Maybe We Should Have Another

The steam from the shower had filled the bathroom and even though she had scrubbed her skin raw under the torrid water there was a lingering on her that she couldn’t shake.

Maybe she needed her own bed. Perhaps she needed to sleep in the same place longer than two weeks. Or it could just be that she had a parasite in her. She was hoping it was the flu and not the other thing.

Mulder re-entered the bathroom dressed in his shorts and hung his towel on the back of the door. On the run you had to be more organized because if you left in a hurry, you might leave something important behind.

They never brought in more than just an overnight bag from the car. They slept in the room on the end of the strip of any motel and they didn’t stay anywhere upscale enough or low-end enough to require a CCTV. Big cities were good for hiding out but smaller towns suited them better.

It had been a rough few months and she used to think she missed her life in DC but she didn’t. It wasn’t much of a life before she left it. She had her mother and a few friends but without Mulder and William, she wasn’t living.

This wasn’t living either but he helped remind her of those moments when he entered her and it hurt a little bit. Tonight, as he pushed her into the wall of the shower stall, he was gentle. It hadn’t been that tender in a long time. She remembered the first time they were together, with his baby inside of her and the scars on his face fading with the memories of what happened to him.

She told him it was okay to be less gentle with her, she wasn’t made of glass and the female form was not off limits during the gestation of a child. He didn’t know how to keep his hands off of her then but his body held back anyway. At first.

“What if you’re not sick?” he asked.

“I don’t know, I can’t…” Scully shook her head. “I won’t get rid of a baby.”

Mulder nodded and asked gently, “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know what I’m feeling,” she admitted. “I’m angry at myself, a little.”

“Why?”

“Because if a baby can be made once in a womb declared barren, what’s to say it couldn’t happen again?” she asked.

“You mean what if William wasn’t the result of the final ova those assholes left you with and a well timed night together?” he asked. She appreciated he didn’t call it a fuck. It wasn’t like that then. They fucked but they made love. They slept together and had sex. But not just the carnal act without feeling.

Scully took out the test strips she had hid inside her bag but didn’t look at them.

“You don’t need to protect me,” he said. He was hinting to the fact that she was hiding things from him. “I want to know everything.”

“Here,” she said as she put the strips inside his palm. “You look then.”

Mulder stared at the oval windows on the EPT tests and cocked his head to the side. It reminded her of a puppy when he did that. Sometimes she wanted to smack that puppy on the nose.

“What?” she asked. She wasn’t going to approach him to look herself.

“There’s two lines on one and one line on the other,” he said. “They’re different.”

Scully took the tests from him and looked at the evidence of inconclusive tests and the reason they want you to take them in the morning when your hormone levels are at their highest.

“Fuck!”

She threw the sticks across the bathroom in an uncharacteristic outburst of emotion.

“Fuck!”

Mulder reached out and she brushed him away. He held his hands up in defense.

“What do you need, Scully?”

She liked hearing him call her that but they weren’t supposed to do that anymore. They were supposed to be other people with common names. David and Elizabeth Jones. Boring people who had dyed dark hair and weren’t supposed to have a baby.

A selfish thought filled her brain and she tried to push it away. But she couldn’t. A family wouldn’t be who they were looking for. No one would be stopping a family on the run.

What kind of life would that be for a child?

If it was true, if she was pregnant, William would be two when this one came out. She felt sick to her stomach again.

It was an ideal spacing for children and if she hadn’t given up everything, they would be close enough to be playmates. Close enough to only remember being with each other.

“Maybe we should have another,” he said slowly and her eyes flashed with hurt. Mulder caught the expression and he held his hands up. “Sorry. That’s not right.”

“No,” she agreed.

“I’m being an asshole,” he said and it almost sounded like a question.

Scully shook her head with a shrug because she didn’t know. He wasn’t making this about him, which she appreciated but a baby… No.

Her mind knew they couldn’t. It wouldn’t be stable. There was too much at stake.

“I need to visit the doctor tomorrow,” Scully said.

She handed him the business card for the woman from the gas station.

Mulder looked at the private number written on the back of the card. “I’ll set the alarm.”


	4. Stop Looking at Me Like that!

The quiet mornings of solitude in a town of 6500 people meant they were greeted with friendly hello’s as they at breakfast at the diner across the street from the doctor’s office.

Scully slept solidly the night before but when she woke up the nausea and fear returned. If she hadn’t realized how late she was she would have just assumed this was a flu she picked up on the way.

Hopefully it was a flu and not another miracle that wasn’t meant to be hers. Emily was sick from conception, fighting a virus put there by the same men who created her to die. William was a gift she wasn’t supposed to keep.

She was tired of what she wanted being taken from her.

Mulder was watching her as she nibbled on the dry toast she ordered.

“Do you want some eggs?” he offered.

It was nice of him to offer the last two bites but the smell was suddenly abhorrent to her.

Scully shook her head and set her toast down. His face was covered in concern and she wished he would mask it better if at all.

“Stop looking at me like that!” Her voice was tense and barely above a whisper. His expression didn’t change because the tests in the morning came back again with the same results as the ones last night. One positive, one negative.

Two positive test out of four total does not make one pregnant and she snapped that at him this morning when he began staring at her belly.

“What do you want me to say?” he asked.

She didn’t want to lash out at him. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings or push him out. Her emotions were frayed, she was scared and she didn’t know what would happen if she was pregnant. Aborting a baby, while perfectly understandable and acceptable for other people, went against her instinct.

Maybe she was just preparing herself to mourn again.

“Just say that it is okay,” she said. “I need to hear you say it.”

“It is okay,” he told her and she could see that he meant it. “We will be fine.”

Mulder put twenty dollars on the table under his coffee cup and stood up. “The office should be open now. Nancy said we could come in first.”

The waitress thanked them as they left and Mulder took Scully’s hand to cross the street. Doting and concerned Mulder was more tactile and this morning it felt like a balm on a burn she needed desperately.

Nancy saw them approaching and unlocked the door for them. “Good morning.”

“Thank you for doing this,” Scully said immediately.

“David said you took two tests this morning?” Nancy asked referring to Mulder.

‘David and Elizabeth Jones’ nodded and Scully handed the tests.

“I took four and two came back-”

“Yes I see,” Nancy noted. “Well, we can do a test here and if that is inconclusive also, we have an ultrasound machine. It’s early but we might be able to see something or nothing.”

Scully nodded. She felt such guilt about hoping it was nothing. In her entire life she had never had a “scare” with any man she had slept with. At thirty-eight years old it seemed irresponsible.

So was going on the run with your fugitive boyfriend, her mind piped up.

“There’s sample cups in the bathroom,” Nancy instructed and she showed Mulder into the exam room to wait for her.

Scully filled the disposable cup and set it in the basket labelled “URINE SAMPLES ONLY!” After she washed her hands she followed Nancy into the exam room to wait with Mulder.

Nancy entered with a blank expression. “Your HCG levels are elevated but not conclusive enough to make a definitive declaration.”

“What does that mean?” Mulder asked.

“I want to do a transvaginal ultrasound to see if there’s anything going on,” Nancy told them and Scully nodded. “I’ll give you a moment to get ready.”

“Transvag-” Mulder started.

“Yes it’s exactly what you’re thinking,” she interrupted. Scully took her shoes, jeans and underpants off.

She watched Mulder pick up her panties and stuff them in his pocket.

He gave her a look. “I don’t want them to fall on the ground.”

She pulled the thin cotton sheet over her lap as she laid on the exam table and Nancy knocked twice before she reentered. She prepped the wand with a condom and lubricant.

“You might feel a little bit of pressure,” Nancy advised and Scully nodded.

The wand was inserted and Scully made a face of discomfort. Mulder approached the other side of the exam table and took her hand.

The screen came up and as the image loaded on in front of them Scully sucked in a breath.

“What is it?” Mulder asked.

“I’m sorry dear,” Nancy said solemnly.

“What is it?” Mulder repeated.

Scully’s chin wavered and she brushed a tear from her eye before it fell. “Ectopic pregnancy.”

“We can help you here to take care of it,” Nancy said gently. “Methotrexate will prevent you from having an incision and general anesthesia. But there are more side effects.”

Scully nodded. “I’m aware.”

“Doctor Phillips can do a laparoscopic surgery in Portland, the procedure is actually low-cost,” Nancy told them. “He’s very discreet.”

“Money isn’t an issue,” Mulder told her and kissed the back of Scully’s hand.

“I’d rather have the surgery,” Scully decided.

When Nancy left Scully to get dressed she patted her hand reassuringly.

“Are you okay?” Mulder asked. He asked her that all the time and was relieved every time she answered with something other than ‘I’m fine.’

Scully looked at him sadly. “No.”


	5. You Can't Leave Me in the Dark

Water from the tap on the faucet dripped at a slow, maddening beat and Scully threw back the blankets from her legs to storm across the room. She attempted again to tighten the handle and watched the water threaten to fall.

She hunched over to stare at the bubble of water and it dripped into the porcelain bowl. “Argh!”

Mulder sat up in the bed. “Jesus! What?”

He rubbed his eyes and looked over to where he could see her eyeing the faucet. It was not the source of her frustration but at the moment it would take the brunt of it.

Mulder threw the covers back from the bed and padded over towards her. He put a washcloth in the bowl and nodded at her once as though that was the answer.

Scully put her hands on her hips. “That’s it?”

Mulder groaned as he got back into the bed. She made him go on a five mile run at her pace earlier that evening and his body wasn’t used to angry-Scully running. Angry-Scully ran faster than he was used to and farther than he could tolerate after driving for the last five months.

“Scully, my dear,” he began.

“Don’t call me that,” she rebuked. She meant calling her Scully - that was a no-no. They weren’t supposed to be Mulder and Scully even in the privacy of their hotel room.

“My love, my sweet, my small little slice of pumpkin pie,” he continued.

He was teasing her but it somehow was endearing anyway.

“I need you to come back to bed,” he pleaded.

“I can’t shut my mind off,” she admitted as she hit the switch in the bathroom light. The room was suddenly dark and she tried not to stub her toe on the way back to the bed. “I need something to distract me and yet everything is annoying me.”

Mulder was appreciating the verbose nature in which she was finding herself these days. Nothing stayed bottled up when you felt like you were a bomb ready to go off.

He turned their side light on and squinted at her sour face.

“Even me?” he asked.

She sighed. “No. You’re being pretty great actually.”

He smiled a little and she held up a finger.

“But don’t push it.”

Mulder frowned a little. “I feel pretty helpless right now too.”

She turned to him and he awaited what might be him being ripped a new asshole but her mouth formed a half-pout. “I’m sorry.”

It was his turn to feel surprised. “You are?”

“I’m not being fair to you,” she acknowledged. “I’m being a bitch and I can feel I’m being a bitch but it doesn’t make me feel any less bitchier.”

Mulder nodded. “Now you know how I feel when I’m going off on a rant about aliens.”

Scully’s face lit up and she laughed. Full belly and it was beautiful and sexy. He pulled her to him and he kissed her. Her tongue surprised him as it slipped in his mouth and she climbed on top of him to shed her night shirt.

“Hey this is fun,” Mulder commented as he reached between them to feel her.

“If running endorpins won’t help, I’m sure this will,” she said dryly.

Mulder’s mouth morphed into a disappointed frown. “That’s it?”

“No, I mean…” she sighed. “Sorry I’m not trying to use you or something.”

Mulder rubbed his hand up her bare thigh and to her waist. “I was kidding. I fully enjoy being used by you, Scully.”

“I miss hearing you call me that,” she admitted as she tugged on his boxer shorts.

“Can you do me a favour?” he asked as he kissed along her jaw.

“Besides run away with you?” she mused.

Mulder flipped them onto her back so that he was on top of her. His member was heavy against her thigh and she squirmed against him.

“Do me a favour, Scully,” he coaxed.

She took him in her hand. “Name your favour wisely, Mulder.”

He liked hearing his name on her lips too. “You can’t leave me in the dark.”

He was referring to the pregnancy tests she tried to hide from him. It was a silly selfish move and she knew that. She owed him enough to express to him anything that was going on with her. After all they had been through, he needed to know.

“You need to tell me these things,” he told her gently.

He was growing harder in her palm and she pulled him down for a kiss with her other hand. “I won’t keep things from you, Mulder.”

“Say it again,” he whispered against her mouth.

“Mulder,” she whispered and he slowly pushed himself inside of her.


	6. You Can't Even Look at Me

Scully awoke with a hospital monitor beeping in the distance and the forced white walls stinging her eyes. She looked over to see Mulder sitting at her bedside with his eyes fixated on her and his fingers interlaced and gripping each other tightly. 

“Hi,” she said. Her eyes looked away from him and glanced around the room. 

No handcuffs on either of them. No security guard outside their door. So far a hospital stay had been successful to hide their identity. That was a major concern for them that upon entering any major hospital they would be recognized. 

The stress surrounding the need to stay out of prison alone was enough reason not to have a child. It didn’t make what she was doing any easier.

Doctor Phillips patted her hand as he asked about her medical history. He called her Liz and smiled at her with kind eyes. When the general anesthesia worked through her body she would feel it on her skin, in her hair and on her nails. Her hormones would have a reaction to the sudden loss of a baby and she might feel some post-partum depression.

She was aware of all of these things and she told herself that she could handle it. 

“Scully,” Mulder whispered and she shook her head. He rolled his eyes. “Uh… Liz?”

“Did the doctor say when we could go?” she asked.

“One or two days,” he answered. 

She was staring at her hands and she could feel the shift in her hormones. Or maybe she was just feeling the loss already. 

Doctor Phillips entered with a smile on his face and a coffee in hand.

“Liz you’ll feel some discomfort and I’ll need you to promise me that you’ll stay here in town for the next few weeks,” Dr Phillips explained. He looked over her chart. “But there were no complications. We were able to remove the fetus without an issue.”

He moved the blanket back from Scully’s lap and pulled her gown up to examine her incision. 

“Everything looks great. I really don’t feel comfortable with you traveling for a few weeks,” Doctor Phillips advised and he caught Scully’s expression. “Your husband mentioned you were going up to Alaska in the next few weeks for a cruise.”

“Right.” Scully nodded. “I suppose we can hang around. There will be other ships.”

Mulder shifted in his seat. “We’re staying at the Pine Ridge Motor Lodge in Sunnyside.”

“Oh just up the street from me,” Doctor Phillips noted. “Well if you look okay by tonight you can be discharged.”

Doctor Phillips left the hospital room and Mulder tried to discuss with Scully how she was feeling but her mind wasn’t able to focus. She wanted to go back to sleep but her mind wasn’t tired. Mulder knew her too well if she was faking sleep or anything else for that matter. 

“Hey, I was trying to ask about food. What do you want to eat?” Mulder repeated and she shrugged down at her hands. “You can’t even look at me?”

“I don’t want you to see how badly I’m doing with this,” she muttered. 

His eyes widened and he got out of the chair to get on the bed with her. He pulled her into his arms and she broke. The well of emotion bottled up inside of her poured out and she began to sob. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he rocked her. He smelled like sweat and the fabric softener they used at the laundromat. He was everything to her and if they were able to have one glimmer of happiness in the last ten years, that baby would have been it. 

She clutched onto the material of his shirt and cried quietly into his chest. Her body heaved and she felt Mulder began to shake. He lost something too. 

“I’m sorry,” he repeated softly. 

“I’m tired of us being sorry for what we can’t have, Mulder,” she whispered. 

Rage, sadness, regret and frustration were powerful emotions to feel all at once. There in Portland, Mulder held Scully as she worked through all of them. It would be months before she felt back to what her normal was. Until then, she leaned on him the way she couldn’t after she had to give up William.


	7. Thunderstorms

The rain was hitting the roof of the motel hard and Mulder was unable to sleep. The lights in the parking lot were flickering and he wondered if it was possible for a cow to come through is roof twice in a lifetime. There weren’t many cows in their part of Portland.

Scully had come home from the hospital after two days in recovery. The doctor said no sexual activity for two months and it had been three. His body felt on fire sleeping next to her and he was running more than he used to.

They grew relaxed in Sunnyside. She took up a job at a walk-in clinic seeing patients. Mulder worked for cash for a construction job. He read every manual he could get his hands on and tried to stay out of the way as he did scut work.

A crack overhead and Scully sat up immediately.

“It’s just the storm,” he assured her and she nodded. She laid down and turned her back to him. A familiar view these days.

She sat up again and left the bed to use the bathroom. When she returned she laid facing towards him and he smiled down at her. He could see her eyes glistening in the darkness of the room. Another crack of lighting brightened the room up and he could see her smiling back.

“I miss you,” he whispered.

“I’m here,” she whispered back.

Scully reached for him and pulled him to her. Their mouths met half way and she sighed as he touched her. The small incision on her stomach had healed but he avoided touching it. The reminder of something they couldn’t have wouldn’t be conducive to what they wanted right now.

She pushed his boxer shorts down and took his hardness in her palm. He was hot against her skin where she felt cool. His hands pushed up her T-shirt above her breasts and he took each nipple in his mouth. She sighed as he worked at the nerves and suckled.

His hands made waste of her panties and he was happy to discover her wet for him. He missed knowing she liked his touch. He missed knowing he wasn’t the thing that could hurt her.

“Get a condom,” Scully instructed and he sat back on his heels to reach over to the nightstand. Scully made waste of her clothing and he pulled his shorts off the rest of the way.

He applied the prophylactic quickly before settling himself on top of her.

“Are you sure?”

“I miss you too,” she whispered.

He nudged inside her tight walls and watched her face for signs of regret. Her cheeks began to flush and he allowed her to adjust to the intrusion.

“Let me know,” he told her. Three months without being inside her and he needed a moment too.

Scully moved her hands up his back and pulled his face to hers for another kiss. Her walls relaxed and he found his body winding up. He needed her fiercely but she would need gentleness and care.

Their hips moved in unison and the sound of their moans and skin against one another filled the room. He whispered her first name as he pumped inside her and she felt a thrill at the forbidden. They weren’t supposed to be Fox or Dana or Mulder or Scully anymore.

They were the Jones-es.

“Harder,” she urged as he moved inside her.

Mulder shook her head and she pulled on his lower back.

“Please, Mulder,” she whispered. “I need to feel something.”

He thrust into her harder and she cried out. It became frantic and rough. She felt alive again after three months of feeling numb. He marked her skin. She scratched her nails down his back that he might bleed.

He didn’t care. He needed to feel something too.

When she came she called him Fox and he found himself finishing closely behind her. It was a powerful thing to hear a name he hated on her lips as she panted underneath him.

“The last time you called me that-” he started.

“You told me not to,” she finished for him. “Sorry.”

“I think I don’t mind it too much like that,” he whispered against her skin.

She held his body to hers as he throbbed inside of her. “Thank you for waking me up.”

His face caught the expression.”We’ll be okay, Scully.”

“I know.”


	8. You Heard Me, Take it Off

They had packed their belongings and were ready to leave Sunnyside. It was a nice place but to live out of the same motel suite for the last four months was pushing it.

They were heading south to New Mexico because who would look for Mulder in the one state he was wanted in? It was a daring move but Mulder appreciated boldness in his every day life. Maybe if they picked them up they could be at neighbouring prisons. He joked if they got married they might be allowed conjugal visits. Scully found little to laugh about in that scenario.

They sold their SUV for cash and bought another one under new names. Good-bye David and Elizabeth Jones. Hello Bill and Julia Howard. She didn’t know where he was getting these new identities and she didn’t want to ask. It made it easier if she knew less about the connections he made while he was on the run after William was born.

Mulder found Scully in the gift shop area of a road side diner they stopped for a few hours. When you didn’t have a scheduled time of arrival, there was less to worry about including making good time. Although she knew Mulder liked to try anyway.

It must have been a man-thing she didn’t concern herself with. Even when she worked along-side John Doggett he would comment on their excellent travel time and she would smile at him as though such a simple thing shouldn’t provide such happiness. But he learned long before she did that allowing small things to make you happy could outweigh the infinite sadness of losing something as precious as a child.

Losing his son broke up John and his wife. Scully had been determined not to let losing William divide her and Mulder.

Mulder found Scully trying on different ball caps. Even with her hair dark brown, she still worried about being seen. She found the dark hair helped her blend in but Mulder reminded her that she couldn’t hide how beautiful she was. His sentimental nature was endearing at times.

“Take it off,” Mulder ordered when he saw her donning a wide brimmed hat.

“What?” she turned to him. She looked like Audrey Hepburn behind her large sunglasses and that ridiculous hat.

“You heard me, take it off,” he repeated. “You know that kind of incognito bull shit is obvious.”

She nodded and knew he was right. Being inconspicuous was easier by not trying to hide too much. Scully hung the hat up and found a black ball cap that read “The Land of Enchantment”.

“You should see if they put that slogan on underpants,” Mulder whispered in her ear as he found a similar ball cap.

Scully felt herself flush. “You’re crude.”

“Ah but you like me that way,” he teased and pinched at her backside.

She studied him as he found her a T-shirt and picked out an alien head key-chain. She found a bag of salted sunflower seeds and they headed toward the cashier.

“Where’s the closest motel?” Mulder asked the woman behind the register.

Her vacant brown eyes studied the pair in front of them. “You want by the hour?”

Mulder looked down to his co-conspirator and partner in crime. “Oh definitely need something more than an hour.”

Scully took the bag from the young woman. “Thank you.”

“Next turn off there’s cabins you can rent for the week,” the young woman explained as she smacked her gum. She winked at Scully. “Have fun.”

After three days at the cabin Scully had to find a local doctor to prescribe an antibiotic for a possible UTI from too much sex. They stayed put for another four days to let her body recover and they watched bad movies on the crackling television. If this was their new normal she wasn’t minding it.


	9. I'm Pregnant (Not What You Think)

They sat in a diner with air conditioning that ran too cold in their shorts and T-shirts. The New Mexico sun had browned his skin and made hers a little pinker. They both had new freckles to show for it and Mulder liked to memorize each one across her shoulders as they sat by the pool at their motel as the sun went down.

Scully was found a job working as a doctor in a free clinic, a common theme for them on the road. It made okay money and no one asked too many questions when she was willing to work for less than the standard pay. Mulder found construction work and it seemed he was more handy than he gave himself credit for. The training in Sunnyside paid off.

As they sat with sticky skin on the cold leather booths Mulder maneuvered to her side of the table. He swung his arm across her shoulders and kissed her cheek tenderly.

He was obviously flirting with her but it was probably because after nine months on the road, they were doing okay. No close encounters. No slip ups. She was used to the name he gave her and she felt relieved to hear him call her Julia across a grocery store as he held up items she was looking for. Maybe they were going to get sloppy at some point and find themselves in jail.

At least they would be happy before it all ended. It could come crashing down around them at any moment.

“I never got to do this when we dated in D.C.,” Mulder noted as he continued to kiss down her neck. “I miss your red hair, though.”

“I had planned for us to go for dinner when we got back from Oregon,” Scully reminded him. They had been sleeping together for nine months and she had news for him.

“I remember,” Mulder said as he sat up a little straighter and adjusted himself in his work shorts. The sun did something to his hormones and he seemed to want her more than all the time. “What did you want to tell me?”

“I was going to tell you I was pregnant,” she whispered and he tried to catch her gaze but he couldn’t. Her eyes were fixated on the napkin in front of her. “I remember rehearsing the words. I’m pregnant. It didn’t sound real.”

Mulder’s hand traveled from his jeans to hers. He pulled her small hand up to his lips and kissed it softly. “I’m sorry.”

“I suspected for a few weeks before the Oregon trip,” she mentioned. “But I didn’t know how to tell you.”

Mulder rubbed her hand on his cheek. “Just like this.”

“What would you have done?” she asked.

His lips closed to her ear and his breath was hot on her neck. “I would have taken you to bed and repeated the action that found you in such a predicament. And I would have called Skinner and told him the truth could take a backseat while we took a week off.”

“Why a week?” she asked. Her skin was flushed from his words in her ear.

“I would have taken you to Martha’s Vineyard because I was feeling nostalgic for my childhood. I think becoming a father does that to a person. I would have spoiled you in bed at some overpriced bed and breakfast,” he contemplated. “Somewhere with a deep bathtub and all the crab cakes you could stuff into your tiny face. No champagne but something else to celebrate.”

“I do like crab cakes,” Scully sighed. Her hand traveled down to his leg and up his thigh. “And bath tubs.”

“The one we have at the hotel isn’t bad,” Mulder noted.

Scully looked up into his eyes and saw the hooded desire. “You had to go and get yourself abducted by aliens.”

Mulder smirked. “Then die.”

“Why did you do that to me?” she asked with a mock pout.

Mulder kissed her lips softly. “I did come back from the dead, like Lazarus I walk among us. Maybe it was from that plastic bowl and that bad Hollywood movie Skinner was a producer on.”

Scully made a face.

“No you’re probably right. Science saved me again,” Mulder sighed and kissed her again.

“Science?” she asked.

“You saved me?” he guessed.

“You save me too, Mulder,” she told him. “You bring life into whatever I’m doing.”

Mulder kissed her again and their tongues met. She tasted his cherry coke and the saltiness from a long day of work. She felt the urge to go to bed but they were still waiting on their food to arrive. She pushed him away and wiped the edge of her mouth coyly.

“Tease,” he muttered.

The waitress placed two plates in front of them. A sandwich to share, fries for him and a salad for her.

A patient hand patted the thickness under the material of his shorts. “Wait your turn.”

She popped a fry into her mouth and Mulder took the innuendo to mean good things for him later.


End file.
